TVSquad

Well, folks, it's time to start arranging your calendars; the networks are beginning to announce the premiere dates for both their new shows and their returning shows. So, if you've been hankering to find out what happened to Lilly and Marshall on How I Met Your Mother, what the new show Jericho is going to be like, or how many new ways CSI is going to show a person's pancreas, then look below and make note of these dates:

9/14: Survivor: Cook Islands
9/17: The Amazing Race 10
9/18: The Class, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, The New Adventures of Old Christine, CSI: Miami
9/19: NCIS, The Unit, Smith
9/20: Jericho, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY
9/21: CSI, Shark
9/22: Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home, Numb3rs
9/23: Crimetime Saturday, Crimetime Saturday, 48 Hours Mystery
9/24: 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race 10, Cold Case, Without a Trace

[via Cynopsis]

The hunky Blair Underwood has signed on to play a recurring role as a "hunky new teacher" at Richie's school, on The New Adventures of Old Christine. Underwood joined the cast after a pilot he was in, called Company Town, didn't get picked up by the networks. Most recently, Underwood co-starred in NBC's failed LAX with Heather Locklear. I swear, he doesn't look like he's aged a single day since he was on LA Law.

In other casting news, that really hot Brazilian actor from Love Actually is joining the cast of Lost. His name is Rodrigo Santoro and, in case the name and the reference don't ring any bells, he played the co-worker who had the hots for Laura Linney in the movie. Not sure what role he's playing on Lost, but then again I don't really want to know in case it ruins something.

(S01E13)  I adore Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She really turned on the charm in this episode. It had the perfect combination of physical comedy and... facial... comedy. What do I mean by that? Louis-Dreyfus' face is so expressive. I guess that's physical comedy. Anyway, this was definitely my favorite episode of the season. It even had some Matthew and some of the 'meany moms'.

(S01E12)  This episode had a great twist, didn't it? Christine is tired of feeling like an outcast with the rich mommies who don't work. She finally finds a friend who drives a Prius, is divorced, and works for a living... and it turns out her new friend is the maid for one of the 'mean moms' (by the way- that's one high-priced maid if she can afford a Prius).

I really felt humiliated for Christine when she was visiting her maid-friend at the mean mom's house. She was forced to serve drinks and make hummus for the 'mean moms' while her maid-friend had sex with her boss' wife. Yikes! It was a nice, clean ending with Christine having justification for dropping her new friend.

Just an OK episode for me. I did enjoy the jokes about Christine's cheap $60 haircut and her $40 shoes. And, the whole Portugal bashing was laughable.

(S01E11)  Darnit, CBS! The schedule says Old Christine starts at 9:31 but the network keeps starting it early, so my TiVo always cuts off the first joke of the episode. Maybe I'll start caring enough to change my TiVo to a manual start at 9:30.

There were two good things about this episode: Matthew (Hamish Linklater) and the box office guy. I missed the first joke from Matthew, but I did dig the game where he had Christine guess what people in the obituaries were asking for 'in leiu of flowers'. I sure hope the writers make more use of Matthew when Christine returns for season two. And, the guy in the box office did a bang-up job with his scene. He played the sarcasm very well, making Christine think she can get into the Rolling Stones concert at the last minute-- not once but twice. That could've been played over-the-top but he took a more even approach to it.

Congratulations to Julia Louis-Dreyfus! CBS just signed on for a second season of The New Adventures of Old Christine. Maybe now everybody can stop talking about that 'Seinfeld curse' that she parodied on SNL last week. I watch the show and I think it has some funny moments, but it's not great like The Office or My Name is Earl or Scrubs. Doesn't even come close. Also renewed by CBS is Close to Home and renewal of The Unit is still up in the air. The network ordered 13 episodes of The King of Queens (that's still on?) because Kevin James is shooting a movie with Adam Sandler this year.

Also, CBS picked up five new dramas:

(S01E10)  This week we find out more about what led to Christine and Richard's divorce. All along, Christine has been under the assumption that they both had their issues, but everyone else (including her couples' therapist and Wanda Sykes' character, Barb) thinks Christine is the one who ended it. Christine gets all upset but, in the end, her ex-husband tells her that the marriage was doomed and he didn't have the guts to end it, but she did. So, now we know. Oh, and Richard slept with the marriage counselor after they divorced. Did anyone else think that marriage counselor was actually a man, baby? Yeah!

Well, this episode totally aired out of order. Ritchie hasn't met old Christine? Hello? Is anybody at the network even watching this show? Ritchie, Richard and new Christine all went to a movie together two episodes back. I think this was meant to be the second episode of the series.

It felt like the second episode of the series, anyway. The one-liners were uncomfortably delivered and old Christine was still having issues with new Christine and her husband dating. I thought we were way past that. And, I actually really felt bad for old Christine in this episode, with her son being so excited about his sugar-filled "fun" day with new Christine.

Overall, I say this episode was... eh. I'm not sure why the network held onto this one for May ratings but it wasn't a stellar edition of this show. I much prefer the Supertramp episode where Christine ends up sleeping with Andy Richter, or when she tries to combat racism at her son's school and it backfires.

(S01E08)  This week, Christine decides to stick it to the rich parents by throwing her son Richie a traditional birthday party complete with balloons, banners, crafts and potato salad. Of course, the kids think the party totally sucks because there weren't any celebrities like Teri Hatcher or Kelly Clarkson there. Luckily, the kids end up having an impromptu treasure hunt for all the crap Christine has stuffed away in nooks and crannies around her house and they go home happy (and at least one of them with Christine's bra).

(S01E07) Ew! That title is gross! Especially because we all know 'Stan' is really Andy Richter with a moustache. *shudder*

I was very thankful that this week's episode wasn't about the pet rat that Christine brought home from Richie's classroom. I kind-of expected the story to go along the lines of losing the rat or the rat dying. Why, exactly, was that rat even in the story? Just for the one joke about it staying the night? That's an awful lot of set up. Anyway, that's why I appreciate this sitcom. It doesn't go the direction of other sitcoms by dealing with stupid problems like a lost rat. Instead, it deals, in a very funny way, with big issues like loneliness.

(S01E06) This week Christine is on a mission to make her son's private school more racially diverse. She doesn't really know anything about civil rights issues but why should that stop her? So, she sponsored a black family to get into Richie's school.

I was happy to see that Christine brought her brother Matthew along on her dinner date with her "black family", as she calls them. Matthew's always good for a laugh, like when he touts Christine's voting record by saying that she voted more than 200 times in the American Idol finals last year. Obviously, Christine's token "black family" was going to turn out to be a nightmare and, sure enough, the dad lands two big, offensive remarks about homosexuals (the F word). So, she gets a gay couple to offset the "black family's" bigotry. Of course, the two men say they don't like all the Jews at their child's former school. So, instead of diversity, she has introduced hate to her son's school.

Fat joke within the first minute of the show. Arrrgh!

Other than that, this was another great episode. This week, Burton is putting pressure on Christine to introduce him to her 8-year old son but Christine isn't comfortable. Even though I saw it coming from miles away (because they always pull something like this every episode), I still chuckled when Christine was teasing her boyfriend from the other side of the door and then she turns around and her family is watching. I think I was laughing more at Christine's grocery store/sex metaphor than anything else.

I am really, really, REALLY trying to like Julia Louis-Dreyfus' new show, The New Adventures of Old Christine. The show does provide some good laughs, and the developing relationship between Christine and Burton is looking interesting (although it does seem like she's found him a little on the early side). Even the relationship between Christine and her ex Richard looks like it might be fertile ground to explore. If the writers can stay away from the dumb sitcomy jokes and develop the supporting characters -- the show really sags when Julia's off-screen -- they may have something there.

But what the writers really need to do is stop having Christine say she's "old and fat", or make jokes about her expanding rear end or how she's so much fatter than "New Christine" (Anna seems to agree with me; check the first paragraph of her latest review). I mean, really, have the writers ever taken a look at Julia? She's in fantastic shape for a woman of any age, much less one who's in her mid-forties and has had two kids (Julia, I mean, not Christine). The costume designer seems to get it; the clothes Julia wears on the show are far more form-fitting and revealing than anything she wore ten years ago on Seinfeld, and it all looks great on her.

So why do the writers persist with the fat jokes? Doesn't that play up to every stereotype of how women see their bodies? Can't they go away from the cliché just once and show a divorceé who thinks she's sexy? Wouldn't that make the show better? Let me know in the comments.

I am so tired of the fat jokes that Christine constantly makes about her body. She's fit. She owns a gym. She's tiny. Shut up, already. The show is funny enough with out that whole woman's-poor-body-image-thing.

Finally, we get to see a lot more of Christine's ex-husband, Richard. It turns out he's jealous of Christine's new boyfriend. Hypocritical? Oh yes, considering he is dating a 28-year old woman, also named Christine. And he's been flaunting young Christine in front of old Christine for the last few episodes.